The new Screen editor

We're rolling out a new version of the Screen editor, one venue at a time. It builds the same kitchen-screen card as before, and every layout you have already made opens in it unchanged. What is new is how the pages are laid out, and three things you could not do before: undo, preview a whole kitchen screen, and start from a Blank card.

Find it under KDS → Screen editor.

Your layouts

Each layout is a row with a small picture of its card, how many sections and components it has, and when it was last changed. A layout that stations are using says so (2 stations); one nobody is using says Not assigned. Click a row to open it in the editor.

You give a layout to a station from that station's Settings tab, not from this page. Stations without one show the built-in default card.

At the end of each row:

• Duplicate makes a copy and opens it. The copy is named "(copy)", then "(copy 2)" and so on. The copy isn't given to any station.
• Rename changes the name without opening the editor.
• Delete removes it. If stations are using it, you're told how many will go back to the built-in default card. Nothing stops on the kitchen screen: tickets keep arriving, just in the default look.

Above the list:

• Search layouts narrows the list as you type.
• Export downloads the list you can see as a spreadsheet file (CSV).
• Tick the boxes on two or more rows to delete them together with Delete (2). Clear unticks everything.

Making a new layout

1. 1

   Click New layout

   It's at the top right of the page.

2. 2

   Pick a starting point

   Standard is today's built-in card. Compact fits the most tickets on a screen. Big kitchen is for reading from a distance. Minimal shows just the quantity and the dish. Blank has no top bar at all, so you build that part yourself; the dishes are always there.

3. 3

   Name it

   The name follows the starting point you pick until you type your own.

4. 4

   Click Create & design

   The new layout opens in the editor.

The editor

The editor fills the whole screen. Along the top: close, the layout's name, undo and redo, Preview on kitchen screen, and Save.

• Components (left) is everything you can put on the card, in groups, with a search box. Under each name is what it shows on the sample order in the middle, so you can see what you're adding. A tick means it's already on the card. Click one to add it, or drag it onto the card where you want it. Dishes is always on the card: click it to choose what each dish shows.
• The card (middle) is the real kitchen card with a sample order on it. Click anything on it to change it; drag anything on it to move it. The switches above it change the sample: the order type (Dine in, Collection, QR, Bar tab), Active or Cancelled, and a Narrow or Wide card. They only change what you're looking at, never the layout.
• Settings (right) shows the settings for what you've clicked: the whole card when nothing is selected, a section, or one component. The back arrow (or the Esc key) steps out one level.

Under the card, Top bar section and Bottom section add a section above or below the dishes. Pick its shape as you add it: 1 row, 2 rows, or 1 to 4 columns. Click a section's handle to change its shape, move it or remove it.

Move the pointer over the card to see how it is built: the section you are over is outlined with a small label (for example Top bar · 2 rows), and the piece under the pointer is outlined with its name.

Rows

A row has three places: left, centre and right. A section can have one row or two. With two, you could put the order number and the table on the first row and the date and the timer on the second. Click the section's handle, then choose Rows: 2. Drag a piece onto the second row, or select it and use the Move arrows. Going back to one row keeps everything.

If a row holds more than fits on a narrow kitchen card, a message under the card says so, with Move to a second row to fix it in one click.

Dishes

Dishes is one component. Click it (or any part of the first dish on the card) and its settings list what each dish can show, each with its own switch: Quantity, Dish name, Modifiers, Notes, Category and, if your venue shows allergens, Allergen pills. Where it makes sense you can also set the size and make it bold. A card always keeps at least one of them.

If you switch Dish name and Quantity both off, any dish that has none of the details you left on shows as an empty line on the kitchen screen. The editor warns you under the card and names a dish on the sample that would be blank.

Modifiers are written together, separated by commas. One per row is coming soon.

Seeing what a setting does

Everything you change flashes on the card, so you can see what moved. Some things only appear on certain orders: a takeaway number only on a collection, the "Cancelled" banner only on a cancelled ticket. When the sample order can't show what you're changing, the setting says so and gives you a one-click show on… link that switches the sample. Switching the sample never changes your layout.

The colour of the top bar

The top bar's colour isn't part of the layout. It turns amber, then red, as a ticket waits, and each station decides when: open the station under Stations and look for Screen alerts.

Undo and redo

Every change can be undone with the arrows in the top bar, or with Ctrl+Z (⌘Z on a Mac). Undo back to how the layout was saved and Save switches off again, because there's nothing left to save.

Preview on kitchen screen

Preview on kitchen screen swaps the card for a whole kitchen screen: eight sample tickets in your layout, with timers at different ages (so you see the top bar calm, amber and red), a cancelled ticket, takeaways with a collection time, and tickets with an allergy declared. Change the card's settings while it's open and every ticket updates. Back to editing returns to the card.

Saving and leaving

Save is switched off until you change something. Opening a layout and looking around doesn't change it, and stations using it are not touched. After you save, stations using the layout pick it up the next time their screen loads; there's nothing to restart.

If you close the editor with changes you haven't saved, you're asked first.

Going back to the classic Screen editor

For now the old pages are one click away. Classic, next to the search box on the list and next to the name in the editor, opens the same page the old way. Your layouts are the same in both, so you can switch back and forth.